ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I must first thank my parents and grandparents, especially my grandmother, who instilled in me when I was quite young the valuable realization that I could sit down and make incredible things out of paper, using only my hands. It is true that for years I worked in relative isolation. My work was admired and encouraged by Lillian Oppenheimer, Alice Gray and a few of their friends at the Origami Center of America, but by and large the origami community in the 1970s did not recognize my work as paperfolding. Likewise, the fiber artists and paper sculptors did not embrace my origami as paper art. I owe my breakthrough to Akira Yoshizawa, whose self-portrait in origami was juxtaposed with his photo in an article published in Reader’s Digest. This presentation both validated my efforts and challenged me to create even more wonderful wet-folded origami creations. Inspired by Yoshizawa’s works, I began to make my own paper, but I must also thank Elaine Koretsky of Carriage House Paper in Brookline, Massachusetts. Elaine, her husband Sidney and their daughter Donna Reina, have paved the way for today’s hand papermakers desiring archivally colored art materials.

Despite my isolation in the early years there were, however, a handful of ardent supporters, including Dr Robert Rossi, his wife Van and their children Paul, Anne and Greg, who encouraged my paperfolding efforts and faithfully cheered me on as a real artist. I am deeply grateful for the art education that resulted in the thousands of hours of great times and conversations I shared with them at the Rossi homestead and in the summertime at their rustic camp on Vinton Pond in West Townsend, Massachusetts. The wildlife at this pristine pond has been the most important source of inspiration for many of my fondest origami creations.

My special thanks go to Jennifer Brown, Acquisitions Editor at Tuttle Publishing. It has been a great pleasure to work with her not only on this book but on many other origami publishing projects during the last several years. Jennifer’s ability to grasp the important aspects of presenting origami design has made her a great ally. I am thankful to the entire team at Tuttle for supporting us in these efforts.

Finally, I must thank my partner Richard Alexander, who not only recognized how special my origami work was but made it possible for me to focus on art as my vocation. Richard was the first to produce professional displays of my work. He showed me how to transform my crumpled pieces of paper, which I kept in a cigar box, into exquisite well-lit masterworks that hold their own in any art gallery or museum—indeed even the Louvre! Richard critiqued, composed, framed and put my art under dust bonnets. He took excellent promo photos, and has documented the past decades of my work. His focus was not just my art. He also put me in a jacket and tie for nearly every public appearance and made me comfortable in front of TV and video cameras. He helped me improve my writing skills and provided the computer tools to help me author numerous books. Above all, he provided me with the Origamido Studio, a place where we could design great new creations—a place where I could live my dream. It has been hard work but it has been so much easier since we have done it together, and you are holding just one remarkable result in your hands.